Toledo was 3-0 and #24 in College Insider's Mid-Major Top 25 before losing by 8 at Syracuse on Wednesday. With a game against Kansas on Tuesday, it is possible that the Rockets were looking past the Big Red when they played on Friday afternoon.

The game was tied at 30 with about 5 minutes left in the 1st half, then Cornell went on a 9-0 run to break things open. The Big Red ended the half up 11, 46-35. Within the first 5:30 minutes of the 2nd half, the lead was up to 21.

Toledo then chipped away brining its deficit down to 1 with 15 seconds left. Morgan hit two free throws to extend the lead to 3. Cornell fouled on the inbounds, sending Toledo to the line with 3 seconds left. They missed the FT and it bounced around before being corralled by the Rockets, but the clock expired.

Morgan led all scorers with 24 points, and Stone Gettings, who returned to the starting lineup, had 21. Warren had 11 points, including some big buckets when Toledo was making its comeback.

The team shot 56% for the game. They went 12-28 from three, including 9-18 from its two leading scorers.

Cornell started Bathurst, Morgan, Gordon, Julian and Gettings. Warren, McBride and Boeheim played the majority of bench minutes. Gettings and Warren, back in their 2016-2017 roles, were as productive as they were last year. McBride and Boeheim, while not producing much on offense, are playing solid defense.

The Big Red are now 2-3 with both wins coming at home. While there is very little to criticize in this win, against a borderline Top 150 team, Cornell needs to work on avoiding a letdown when opening up a big lead. In its two wins, the team was up 21 points in the second half, only to see those leads brought down to a single possession. Against Binghamton, they were able to recover more quickly and reestablish a 10 point advatage. Against the stronger Rockets, they were just able to hold on.

Cornell is back in action Monday night, as they go on the road to take on Duquesne (2-1) from the A-10. Duquesne has not played in 8 days. According to KenPom, the Big Red are at #242 and the Dukes are #249.

The offense has looked pretty good in two home games. When the guys are clicking, they should be able to score with most mid-majors. Unfortunately, they will have to, as they have surrendered at least 1.15 points per possession in four of five games this year. That's going to put a lot of pressure on the offense.

Three road games are next: Duquesne, Northeastern, and Longwood. I'd love to see the guys steal one of next two.